Take, for instance, when my wife asks, “Are you going to wear that?” Noticing the stung look on my face in response, she immediately follows with “I am just trying to be helpful.” (Excuse me? I think. Helpful? How in any universe is your commentary on the pants I am wearing “helpful”?) If my PFC is not engaged and I am not paying attention to the sudden rise in my body’s tension or the emotional sense of having been criticized or the thought, She thinks I’m stupid when it comes to clothing, which in about two nanoseconds leads to She thinks I’m stupid, period, I will soon be wishing to retract
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